Greenly, a Surabaya-based F&B fast-casual retail chain startup that serves healthy food and beverage, announced today that it had secured seed funding led by East Ventures, with participation from several angel investors. The company plans to use the fresh fund for product innovation, technology development, and expand its network in both Surabaya and other cities.

Edrick Joe Soetanto and Liana Gonta Widjaja founded Greenly after the two struggled in finding a healthy diet in Surabaya. They realized there’s a massive scarcity of affordable healthy food that is fast, easily accessible and has a wide range of product menu.

“We seek to address the gap between healthy but expensive food offered by existing players, and affordable but unhealthy food provided by the fast-food chain network. Thus we founded Greenly as a fast casual chain serving various salads, grain bowls, cold-pressed juices, smoothies, nut milk and other healthy products that are created using natural and fresh ingredients” said Liana.

Furthermore, the rise of the middle-class economy in Indonesia that are health-conscious is seen by the two as a huge opportunity to tap in.

The availability of affordable healthy food products plays a vital role in helping the Indonesian people in having a better diet. The data from FAO shows that the average Indonesian people consume only 122 grams of vegetables and 92 grams of fruit every day. These numbers are lower than the recommended daily intake level of 300-400 grams of vegetables and 100-150 grams of fruit.

And so, in 2019, Greenly opened its first outlet in Surabaya with the mission of democratizing healthy diet in Indonesia. Liana is a Nutritionist from UC Berkeley with vast experience in the health and F&B industry. She is also the figure behind hundreds of Greenly’s recipes. Meanwhile, Edrick, who is a serial entrepreneur, as well as a former Consultant at PwC, is the chief commander in developing and executing Greenly’s business strategy.

“We aim to provide healthy food and beverages that are affordable, convenient, and easily accessible. Our mission is to bring healthy diet to all levels of society and make it happen in Indonesia as something democratic, not just for a niche market. We are confident with the support of East Ventures and all partners, we can realize this mission,” Edrick added.

One of the main components of Greenly’s strategy is by integrating the new retail concept with an O2O approach, a strategy that distinguishes them from other traditional big players. Greenly adopted a multichannel-sales style by combining both physical outlets and online delivery. To date, Greenly operates five outlets in Surabaya – 1 outlet in a Mall with a cafe/restaurant concept, while four others are cloud kitchen dedicated to delivery service. This strategy helps them to operate their business efficiently and enable the company to offer their products at affordable prices, thus realizing its mission to bring access to healthy diet for more people.

Read more: East Ventures Digital Competitiveness Index 2020: Uncovering The Opportunities of Indonesia’s Digital Economy and Bridging the Archipelago Digital Divide

The high demand from Indonesian consumers for affordable healthy food products, combined with the right business model, has made Greenly’s business grows 5-fold throughout 2019. The company plans to expand its outreach beyond Surabaya in 2020.

The digital readiness of Surabaya City is the main component that contributes to Greenly’s achievement in developing its business through online platforms. Research from East Ventures – Digital Competitiveness Index 2020 report has placed Surabaya in the 3rd position among 24 biggest cities in Indonesia for its digital competitiveness.

Specifically, Surabaya scored a high rank in the category of e-money transaction and GDRP of logistics subsectors. These two categories have become the core foundation of Greenly’s business, where over 50% of the company’s sales are from online-delivery service.

Willson Cuaca, the Managing Partner of East Ventures, explained, “Based on EV-DCI, Jakarta is the best city to support the development of digital-based businesses. Successful founders from outside Jakarta must be able to adapt quickly and expand to the capital. Our trust in the founders outside Jakarta has been proven previously by the success of IDN Media, where they expanded from Surabaya to all of Indonesia. We believe that Liana and Edrick can bring Greenly from Surabaya to Jakarta, as well to other cities, and provide healthy food and drinks for all Indonesian people.”